Cancer patients likely to be suffering from PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder is highly common among cancer patients and correlates with distress, depression and anxiety, a recent study has found.

Researchers enrolled 1,017 adult cancer patients (mean age, 57.6±14.4 years; 513 males) who were asked to accomplish the Post-traumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS-10) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Breast, haematological and lung malignancies were the most common cancers in the sample.

The median PTSS-10 score was 9 points. Majority (68.3 percent; n=695) scored below 12.5 points. Analysis according to sex showed that females were significantly more likely than males to clear the 12.5-point score threshold (24.5 percent vs 38.9 percent; p<0.001).

In comparison, the median HADS anxiety score was 6 points, with most of the participants (63.1 percent; n=642) scoring less than 8 points; 22.3 percent (n=227) scored between 8 and 11 points, while the remaining 14.6 percent (n=148) scored above 11 points. Females were again significantly more likely to surpass 11 points (20.4 percent vs 8.6 percent; p<0.001).

The median depression score was 4 points, with only 13.2 percent scoring above 11 points. Majority (72.5 percent; n=737) fell below the 8-point cutoff. There was no observable gender effect for depression.

Scores in the PTSS-10 correlated significantly with the depression (coefficient, 0.637) and anxiety (coefficient, 0.708) subscales of the HADS, and with the HADS total score (coefficient, 0.744; p-all<0.01). All correlations were of large magnitudes.